Mexican DTOs use the Atlanta HIDTA region as a principal distribution center
for drugs, particularly powder cocaine, destined for drug markets in much of the
eastern United States. Mexican DTOs use their expansive transportation networks
and distribution cells to provide illicit drugs from the Atlanta HIDTA region to
eastern drug markets, including Baltimore; Cincinnati and Dayton; Columbia, Gainesville,
Jacksonville, Miami, and Tampa; Memphis and Nashville; Birmingham and Montgomery;
Pittsburgh; and Roanoke.

Mexican DTOs control the wholesale and midlevel distribution of powder cocaine,
ice methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin in the HIDTA region. Most midlevel and
retail-level distributors depend on Mexican DTOs as their sources for these illicit
drugs. Mexican DTOs typically stash the illicit drugs they transport to the region
in houses located in middle-class neighborhoods and in more rural areas of the region--locations
that the traffickers believe receive limited law enforcement scrutiny. Moreover,
effective law enforcement efforts against Mexican DTOs operating in the Atlanta
area have caused some DTOs to move their distribution operations into North Carolina
to spread their operations over a larger geographic area in an attempt to minimize
the risk of apprehension by Atlanta law enforcement officials. To this end, Mexican
traffickers operating in North Carolina have formed a cooperative relationship to
facilitate control of drug trafficking in the southeast and to increase market share;
they are increasingly distributing Mexican brown powder heroin and black tar heroin
in the state.

A number of DTOs, criminal groups, and local independent dealers distribute illicit
drugs at the retail level in the Atlanta HIDTA region (see
Table 4), and their methods of operation
change little from year to year. In Georgia counties in the HIDTA region, retail-level
distribution takes place at open-air drug markets, at housing projects, in local
clubs, in private residences, and at prearranged meeting sites such as parking lots.
However, in 2008, Atlanta city officials relocated residents of several public housing
projects and demolished the public housing buildings; most of these areas were retail
drug markets controlled by street gangs. The street gang members who resided in
those public housing areas relocated to new areas of the city, particularly Clayton
County, where they formed new street gangs. These new street gangs are competing
with established gangs over drug turf, which has resulted in increased violence
among street gangs in these areas. Heroin distribution in Atlanta remains confined
to the "Bluff" area northwest of the Georgia Dome. MDMA is generally distributed
in pool halls and dance clubs in Buckhead (northern Atlanta) and Midtown. Jonesboro,
located south of Atlanta in Clayton County, is an open-air market for ounce quantities
of powder and crack cocaine. Ice methamphetamine is typically not distributed in
open-air markets because of the erratic behavior often displayed by methamphetamine
abusers; methamphetamine distributors usually deliver the drug directly to abusers
at their residences or other locations that receive limited law enforcement and
public scrutiny. In North Carolina counties in the HIDTA region, illicit drugs are
sold in many of the same types of locations as in the Atlanta area. Crack is distributed
primarily by African American street gangs operating out of public housing projects.
Crack and heroin traffickers in Durham also distribute drugs from open-air markets
on street corners and from crack houses concentrated on the east side of the city.

Traffickers and abusers illicitly obtain CPDs through traditional diversion methods
such as doctor-shopping, theft, and forged prescriptions as well as through unscrupulous
physicians and pharmacists who work alone or in association. CPDs are also diverted
through sales by rogue Internet pharmacies.12
However, the number of sites offering such drugs has decreased, most likely because
of increased law enforcement pressure through improved cooperation among federal
and state law enforcement agencies, Internet service providers (ISPs), package delivery
services, and financial services companies typically used by rogue Internet pharmacy
operators. Federal legislation designed to reduce the number of rogue Internet pharmacies
that sell CPDs was enacted in 2008. (See
text box.) Drug traffickers are increasingly attempting to circumvent law enforcement
efforts to prevent CPD diversion in the Atlanta area by obtaining these drugs in
Florida because of their wide availability.

The Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008 was enacted
in October 2008. This federal law amends the Controlled Substances Act and
prohibits the delivery, distribution, and dispensing of CPDs over the Internet
without a prescription written by a doctor who has conducted at least one
in-person examination of the patient. Provisions of the law increase the
criminal penalties for illegal Internet prescribing of Schedules III, IV,
and V controlled substances. The law will most likely deter some Internet
pharmacy operators from engaging in "script mill" practices, which provide
alleged medical consultations (for a fee) and prescriptions that are sent
to local pharmacies or directly to customers, who can take them to a pharmacy
to be filled.

Retail-level drug distributors typically facilitate drug sales in the Atlanta
HIDTA region using electronic communications, usually cellular telephones and the
Internet. These distributors prefer to conduct drug-related conversations over cellular
telephones with point-to-point capabilities, believing that these communications
are difficult for law enforcement officials to intercept. Many traffickers use a
particular cellular telephone only for a limited time before switching to a new
cellular telephone with a new number to reduce the possibility of law enforcement
monitoring. Traffickers also use cellular telephones with removable subscriber identity
module (SIM) cards,13
maintaining multiple SIM cards and one cellular telephone. By changing SIM cards,
traffickers can use multiple numbers while using only one telephone, again reducing
the possibility of law enforcement monitoring. Moreover, SIM cards are more easily
destroyed than cellular telephones should the trafficker be arrested. In addition,
the Internet has become a popular method of communication for drug traffickers.
Traffickers use Internet chat rooms and blogs to arrange drug sales. Further, African
American street gang members use the Internet to communicate, facilitate gang activities,
and spread gang culture.

Drug-related violent and property crimes often occur within the Atlanta HIDTA
region as distributors, particularly street gang members, protect their distribution
operations and abusers seek funds to sustain their addictions. According to NDTS
2009 data, 11 of the 31 law enforcement agency respondents in Georgia counties in
the Atlanta HIDTA region identify crack cocaine, and 10 of the 31 respondents identify
methamphetamine as the drug that most contributes to violent crime in their jurisdictions.
In North Carolina counties in the HIDTA region, 15 of the 16 law enforcement agency
respondents identify crack cocaine as the drug that most contributes to violent
crime in their jurisdictions. Moreover, 15 of the 31 respondents in Georgia counties
and 13 of the 16 respondents in North Carolina counties in the HIDTA region identify
crack cocaine as the drug that most contributes to property crime.

Mexican traffickers are increasingly committing violent acts in the Atlanta area,
according to several law enforcement officers. Mexican DTO members are increasingly
traveling from Mexico to the Atlanta area and committing violent acts, such as kidnappings,
against members of rival organizations and members who owe drug debts to their organization.
For example, in July 2008, Mexican traffickers lured a Rhode Island man who owed
them money to Gwinnett County, kidnapped him, and held him for ransom until law
enforcement officers rescued him. Violence has also increased among retail-level
distributors over increased distribution of fake or poor-quality drugs.